First, I need someone to tell me I'm not crazy and there is actually a home theater speaker company that can deliver functional speakers more than half the time.
Second, I desperately and urgently need some guidance as to what to do next.
So this starts back in May of last year when I ordered three NHT C-3 bookshelf speakers to renovate my home theater with a matched LCR set. Of the initial shipment of three speakers, two of them were grossly defective. By grossly defective I mean that on one of the speakers, the aluminum mid tweeter dome was deeply dented in a location it could not possibly have been dented after assembly; under the tweeter protector.
A representative at NHT insists that it must have been damaged after shipment by pressing the plastic tweeter protector into the dome... except that the tweeter protector is very rigid (it would probably snap if bent in that far) and the dent in the tweeter dome in no way matches the shape of the protector. In fact the dent is perpendicular to the nearest protector strut. The other defective speaker exhibited a terrible buzz from the mid tweeter that I heard immediately upon sending the first burst of pink noise to the speaker while setting channel levels. NHT accepted both speakers back and sent two replacement speakers.
Of the two replacement speakers sent, one of them had a stripped wall mounting lug on the back side. The other speaker appeared to be OK so I let NHT know about the stripped lug and moved on.
BIG MISTAKE. Recently the same speaker with the stripped mounting lug has begun to exhibit a subtle but definite buzz in at frequencies ranging from 160 - 260Hz. So in total I had then received five speakers from NHT, three of which were functionally defective in easily identifiable ways. With the latest developing buzz being the last straw, I contacted NHT and asked them to accept the return of all three speakers for a full refund as I had lost confidence in the quality control of the C-3 line and didn't want to wait for more failures. They have since refused to accept the speakers back, citing their 30 day return period. They have offered to provide me whatever components I need to repair the defective speaker, assuming I can figure out which component is defective.
So that is only half of the mind numbing story. So then I decide to dump the NHT speakers and go with Aperion Verus II Grand Towers and Center instead. So I order the towers shortly before Christmas and receive them just after. I get the speakers all unpacked and set up (no easy task) and again as soon as I run pink noise to them to set channel levels, I know something is terribly wrong. The tweeter on the one of the towers is completely non functional.
So I contact Aperion and their rep asks me to take the tweeter out of the tower and test it directly to see if it works, which it does, so the problem is in the wiring or the crossover. So they agree to send a replacement while I haul the defective speaker back to a FedEx facility for return. So more waiting, while my home theater sits completely unusable now for weeks.
Today my replacement Aperion Verus II Grand Tower arrives and I excitedly take it into my home theater to unbox and set it up. As soon as I pick up the box I hear a strange clunking sound from inside; something I didn't hear from any of the other Aperion boxes. But I figure that one of the feet must have come loose from the packaging or something. But no. I get the speaker unboxed and sure enough there is something loose rattling around inside the speaker. Peering in the bass ports on the back I find that actually there are TWO somethings loose rattling around inside the speaker; two cardboard tubes, one immediately inside each of the rear ports. Both of which have adhesive on one end, but both floating around loose inside the speaker. I assume that these are components of the bass tuning enclosure. AND this after the rep at Aperion promised they would test the replacement speaker prior to shipping to make sure it was good to go. What do you think the chances are they tested a speaker with two tubes floating around inside?
So now I'm completely freaking out. I've just spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in "high end" speakers from two reputable speaker companies who have now sent me a total of nine speakers, four of which have been grossly defective right out of the box. It has also cost me hours of work and weeks of waiting while my home theater sits dark and lonely.
A couple things worth mentioning before I ask you all for advice:
All of the packaging of all of these speakers appeared normally worn from travel but utterly free of any real damage. The NHT C-3s were double boxed and the inner boxes were immaculate.
At the same time as ordering the speakers from NHT and Aperion, I also ordered subwoofers from Rythmik and HSU. It would seem to me that subwoofers are far more likely to get damaged in transit due to their size and weight, but both of the subwoofers seem to be in perfect condition.
I mean, this situation seems to be essentially impossible. There is no way NHT and Aperion are staying in business while shipping 50% defective product. In my work as an AV engineer, I have specified, purchased, installed and used somewhere in the range of one million dollars in pro audio, video, and lighting equipment and I honestly can't remember the last time I received a piece of defective equipment directly from the manufacturer. Of that million dollars in equipment, at least $100,000 of that is speakers and I have NEVER received a defective speaker from the likes of Meyer, QSC, Fulcrum, EAW, etc. In my current work in the medical device manufacturing industry, we talk in quality terms such as six sigma, meaning 3.4 failures per MILLION products. I know that speakers aren't exactly medical devices, but good grief!
Someone please tell me that I'm dreaming and that the world of home theater audio really isn't this crappy. Or else tell me that the whole internet direct concept is actually a huge prank that everyone else knows about except me and that all I need to do is buy from a "real" speaker manufacturer like Paradigm or RBH.
So after the whole debacle with NHT I swore that I would learn from my mistake and that if I received a defective speaker from Aperion, I wouldn't mess around, I would just return the entire set while I still could and move on to another manufacturer. Well after burning through NHT and now Aperion, the only other one that really caught my eye is SVS with the Ultra Tower and Center.
So now I put it out to all you good people of the Audioholics world to help me decide what to do next.
If I'm looking for a tower and center set for around $1000 per unit, should I go with SVS? Or is internet direct the devil and I should go back to buying reliable speakers from brick and mortar companies like BOSE?
